A Detailed Handbook on US CMA Course Syllabus FY 2023 – By Uplift Professionals

What is US CMA course ?

US Certified Management Accountant (CMA) or US CMA course is a professional certification credential in the management accounting and financial management fields. The certification signifies that the person possesses knowledge in the areas of financial planning, analysis, control, decision support, and professional ethics.

The CMA is a US based, globally recognized certification offered by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA US). IMA US has a legacy of more than 100 years and as of date the membership of US CMA certified candidates is more than 1,40,000 across 150+ countries.

Bachelor degree on any subject. Students who are pursuing their bachelors are eligible to take the US CMA exams. Two years of professional experience in accounting or finance. For Freshers the experience requirement may be completed within 7 years of passing the examination.

A single level of examination which is divided into two parts. Candidates can attempt any part in any order as per their convenience. Each exam part is four hours in length . US CMA exam will have 100 multiple choice questions, followed by two 30-minute essay questions. Exam is conducted at Prometric testing. The exam is conducted in the following windows

a. January – February

b. May – June

c. September – October

The most vital part of the US CMA scholastic program for an aspirant is to know the US CMA syllabus first. A detailed idea about the US CMA syllabus is of utmost important to take informed decisions prior initiation of the journey towards the goal of achieving the coveted US CMA credential. A thorough idea of the CMA subjects for exam will also help to build confidence-a necessary step to crack the CMA US exam.

US CMA Syllabus

Let’s have an in depth look on the course details of the current US CMA syllabus:

The US CMA course involve a 2 part online exam based on the following sections:

1. US CMA Part 1

US CMA syllabus in this section is based on Financial Planning, Performance and Controls which contain following sub sections.

A. External Financial Reporting Decisions(EFRD)

·        Financial statements

·        Balance sheet

·        Income statement

·        Statement of changes in equity

·        Statement of cash flows

·        Integrated reporting

·        Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure

·        Asset valuation

·        Valuation of liabilities

·        Equity transactions

·        Revenue recognition

·        Income measurement

·        Divergence between U.S. GAAP and IFRS

B. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting (PBF)

This is a relatively wider section focusing on budgeting and covers following chapters

·        Strategic planning models and analytic techniques with Long-term mission and goals

·        Budgeting concepts

·        Operations and performance goals

·        Resource allocation

·        Forecasting techniques

·        Regression and Learning curve analysis

·        Budgeting methodologies 

·        Annual business plans (master budgets)

·        Project, Activity-based and Zero-based budgeting

·        Annual profit plan and supporting schedules

·        Top-level planning and analysis

·        Pro forma income

·        Financial statement projections

·        Cash flow projections

C. Performance Management(PM)

This is a performance management section covering following topics.

·        Cost and variance measures

·        Comparison of actual to planned results

·        Use of flexible budgets to analyze performance

·        Management by exception

·        Use of standard cost systems

·        Analysis of variation from standard cost expectations

·        Responsibility centers and reporting segments  

·        Transfer pricing

·        Reporting of organizational segments

·        Performance measures

·        Product profitability analysis

·        Business unit profitability analysis

·        Customer profitability analysis

·        Return on investment

·        Residual income

·        Investment base issues

·        Key performance indicators (KPIs)

·        Balanced score card

D. Cost Management(CM)

This section involves calculations and costing methodologies having following subsections

·        Measurement concepts

·        Cost behavior and cost objects

·        Actual and normal costs

·        Standard costs

·        Absorption (full) costing

·        Variable (direct) costing

·        Joint and by-product costing

·        Costing systems

·        Job order costing

·        Process and activity-based costing

·        Life-cycle and verhead costs

·        Fixed and variable overhead expenses

·        Plant-wide vs. departmental overhead

·        Determination of allocation base

·        Allocation of service department costs

·        Supply chain management

·        Lean resource management techniques

·        Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

·        Theory of Constraints

·        Capacity management and analysis

·        Business process improvement

·        Value chain analysis and Value-added concepts

·        Process analysis, redesign, and standardization

·        Activity-based management

·        Continuous improvement concepts

·        Best practice analysis

·        Cost of quality analysis

·        Efficient accounting processes

E. Internal Controls (IC)

This is the application based section which includes the following:

·        Governance, risk, and compliance

·        Internal control structure and management philosophy

·        Internal control policies for safeguarding and assurance

·        Internal control risk

·        Corporate governance

·        External audit requirements

·        System controls and security measures

·        General accounting system controls

·        Application and transaction controls

·        Network controls

·        Backup controls

·        Business continuity planning

F. Technology and Analytics (TA)

This section has been included to cope with the industry demand which is more inclining on artificial intelligence and robotics. It contain following areas.

·        Information systems

·        Accounting information systems

·        Enterprise resource planning systems

·        Enterprise performance management systems

·        Data governance

·        Data policies and procedures

·        Life cycle of data

·        Controls against security breaches

·        Technology-enabled finance transformation

·        System development life cycle

·        Process automation

·        Innovative applications

·        Data analytics

·        Business intelligence

·        Data mining

·        Analytic tools and Data visualization

2. US CMA Part 2

US CMA syllabus in this section includes Strategic Financial Management Following are the subsections.

A. Financial Statement Analysis(FSA)

This involves financial accounting with more emphasis on analytics and comparisons having following components

·        Basic financial statement analysis

·        Common size financial statements

·        Common base year financial statements

·        Financial ratios

·        Liquidity

·        Leverage

·        Activity

·        Market, Profitability and analysis

·        Income measurement analysis

·        Revenue analysis

·        Cost of sales and expense analysis

·        Variation analysis

·        Special issues

·        Impact of foreign operations

·        Effects of changing prices and inflation

·        Impact of changes in accounting treatment

·        Value and Income – Accounting and economic concepts

·        Earnings quality

B. Decision Analysis(DA)

This part involve the merge of management accounting with the decision making processes. It has following topics.

·        Cost/volume/profit analysis

·        Breakeven analysis

·        Profit performance and alternative operating levels

·        Analysis of multiple products

·        Marginal analysis

·        Opportunity costs, Sunk costs

·        Marginal costs and marginal revenue

·        Special orders and pricing

·        Sell or process further

·        Adding or dropping a segment

·        Capacity considerations

·        Pricing and Pricing methodologies

·        Target costing

·        Elasticity of demand

·        Product life-cycle considerations

·        Market structure considerations

C. Corporate Finance(CF)

This section having following areas which deals with the short term and long term financial management.

·        Risk and return

·        Calculating return

·        Types of risk Relationship between risk and return

·        Long-term financial management

·        Term structure of interest rates

·        Types of financial instruments

·        Cost of capital

·        Valuation of financial instruments

·        Raising capital

·        Financial markets and regulation

·        Market efficiency

·        Financial institutions

·        Initial and secondary public offerings

·        Dividend policy and share repurchases

·        Lease financing

·        Working capital management

·        Working capital terminology

·        Cash management

·        Marketable securities management

·        Accounts receivable management

·        Inventory management

·        Types of short-term credit

·        Short-term credit management

·        Corporate restructuring

·        Mergers and acquisitions

·        International finance

·        Fixed, flexible, and floating exchange rates

·        Managing transaction exposure

·        Financing international trade

D. Risk Management(RM)

This involve assessment, analysis and management of all kinds of risk that a management accountant has to handle for the company. It has following components.

·        Enterprise Risk

·        Types of risk

·        Risk identification and assessment

·        Risk mitigation strategies Managing risk

E. Investment Decisions(ED)

This section trains how to settle important decisions regarding speculations on various available options. It has following components

·        Capital budgeting process

·        Stages of capital budgeting

·        Incremental cash flows

·        Income tax considerations

·        Evaluating uncertainty

·        Capital investment analysis methods

·        Net present value

·        Internal rate of return

·        Payback

·        Comparison of investment analysis methods

F. Professional Ethics(PE)

This impart ethical practice in management accounting processes having following key areas.

·        Business ethics

·        Moral philosophies and values

·        Ethical decision making

·        Ethical considerations for finance professionals

·        IMA’s Statement of Ethical Professional Practice

·        Fraud triangle

·        Evaluation and resolution of ethical issues

·        Ethical considerations for the organization

·        Organizational factors and ethical culture

·        IMA’s Statement, “Values and Ethics: From Inception to Practice”

·        Ethical leadership

·        Legal compliance

·        Responsibility for ethical conduct

·        Sustainability and social responsibility.

Weightage given each part of US CMA exam syllabus

Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics

Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics	Weightage
Technology and Analysis	15%
Internal Controls	15%
Cost Management	15%
Performance Management	20%
Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting	20%
External Financial Reporting Decisions	15%

Part 2: Strategic Financial Management

Part 2: Strategic Financial Management	Weightage
Financial Statement Analysis	20%
Corporate Finance	20%
Decision Analysis	25%
Risk Management	10%
Investment Decisions	10%
Professional Ethics	15%

Top US CMA Exam tips – the preparation strategy [ 2021 Update] :- The most important part is the study/preparation in a guided manner having a proper schedule. Eventually, you will be adapted to the syllabus and format of the US CMA exam. But the ultimate aim is to clear the exam in shorter duration and obviously at first attempt.…continue reading

Summary

So, by now, you are quite well versed about the US CMA syllabus and the US CMA subjects.

Choose the best US CMA institute in India, Africa, and Middle East – Uplift Pro

Uplift Pro is one of the top training institutes for the US CPA, US CMA, US CIA courses in India, Africa, and Middle East. Uplift Pro is also an Indian partner of GLEIM, US and an IMA US authorized CMA US study center. Our team consists of seasoned professionals and entrepreneurs from IIEST, IITs, London Business School, and ULCA who have decided to provide a strong back to young ambitious students and professionals to reach their desired career destinations in an organized way.

Some of our exclusive features include

A. Authorized partner of IMA US CMA course in India

B. Live online classes ensuring that the regular office working hours is least impacted

C. The dedicated faculty team for uplift live online classes are CMA US qualified with incredible marks and have more than 25 years working experience in corporate world. This help the student to learn and simulate the real life corporate working conditions which can not be attained through a CMA pass out faculty only.

D. 1:1 personal support from our 30 plus years of experienced CMA certified faculties. Also, provides full admin support through the dedicated Uplift WhatsApp study group. We have a pass rate of 80% in US CMA course exams.

E. Pass percentage of students ” at first attempt” is about 80% in a duration of 6-9 months in comparison to near about 40-45% pass rate in a global perspective.

F. The small batch size of online classes provide effective interaction with the faculty which help  personalized attention towards achieving the target of  80% “pass at first attempt”

G. Affordable US CMA course fees with special discount in your IMA fees. 

H. “Till you pass” guarantee assuring that you may attend our live online classes at no extra cost until you pass. It means once you become an uplift student, you can attend unlimited live online classes till you pass at no extra cost or reregistration fees.

I. Comprehensive coverage of US CMA course details including authorized GLEIM CMA study materials , class mock session,  IMA registration and job assistance.

J. 120 hours of classes (Live Online Interactive Sessions) by veteran CMA faculties from Monday to Saturday from 9 pm to 10:30 pm

K. Recordings of live online classes available

L. In class mock session conducted by the faculty to make student aware of the exam pattern

M. Doubt clearing session before the exam window

N. Training on soft skills and interview techniques

O. Additional notes prepared by the faculty members on important topics

P. Administration Support towards IMA registration

Q. Job assistance

Request for Live Demo class / contact at +91-8787088850 to book your seats now.